Post-apartheid 'tribalism'? Land, ethnicity and discourses on San subversion in West Caprivi, Namibia

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Post-apartheid 'tribalism'? Land, ethnicity and discourses on San subversion in West Caprivi, Namibia
Author:	Taylor, Julie J.
Year:	2008
Periodical:	African Studies
Volume:	67
Issue:	3
Pages:	315-338
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Namibia
Subjects:	ethnic conflicts ethnicity San Mbukushu images State-society relationship NGO
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/00020180802504999
Abstract:	Since Namibia's independence, West Caprivi's politics have centred on struggles over land, authority and natural resources among the State, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and two ethnic groups, namely the Khwe (a San group) and Mbukushu. This paper analyses the forms taken by some of these struggles between 1995 and 2006, situating them in a broader sociopolitical national and regional context. The paper - which is based on eight months of fieldwork between 2003 and 2006 - takes its starting point from recent work on 'tribes', 'tradition' and 'ethnicity' in Africa. It emphasizes the ways in which Khwe and Mbukushu people constructed, articulated and contested authority in relation to the State, and to each other. Constructions of Khwe identity by all parties were critical to these processes, and were informed by an intersection of discourses around ethnicity, race and nationbuilding. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]